Displaying a flag like a banner, such as the American flag, is the typical way to show a flag. In fact, we've seen it already many times, in America.

Basically, it's become a cliche. Anyone can show off a flag like that... if they have a pole and a way to secure the flag to it. These days, there are plenty of better ways to show off flags, especially the American flag.

Perhaps you can paint the flag all over your car, preferably an American made car. Or you can get a tattoo. Or you can make clothing out of the flag. That way you know your clothes are made in America... as long as it's the American flag.

Heck, why stick with the same old flag designs? Flags change all the time, like the American flag. Perhaps you can have some fun with the flag, and put your cool new design on a T-shirt. We'd say "an American made T-shirt," but we all know that now T-shirts are made in China!

You must make sure that your flag is displayed correctly, however, because flying an American flag upside-down is a way to call for help, and you don't want to look pathetic while wearing your flag, now do you?

Either way, have fun with your cool way to show off your flag, but it helps if your flag has a cool design in the first place. Also, you should first make sure this is actually legal in your country, like America (and America today, a few decades ago it was quite illegal)!

Examples:

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General

Supporters of national teams, particularly in The Beautiful Game, will wear flags as apparel, a lot of times actually as caps. The American Outlaws are a particularly egregious example, as they're noted for wearing American flag bandannas over their lower faces.

Albanian Double-Headed Eagle

Real Life

In every Miss Universe National Costume competition, the Albanian contestant has always worn the flag wrapped somehow. Observe here◊, and here for example.

In recent Marvel Comics, Australian Captain Ethnic Boomerang (brash, dimwitted criminal, uses boomerangs, you know how it is) has begun masquerading as the heroic Outback as part of Norman Osborn's corruption of the 50 States Initiative. Outback's entire costume is the Australian flag, except with a bizarre emphasis on the British flag parts and the Southern Cross only being on his head.

Unfortunately, thanks to a few idiot politicians like Pauline Hanson, racist yobbos have taken to wearing the Australian flag as a cape while beating up minorities and generally being a menace to society and disgrace to the flag.

Max Cavalera from Sepultura and Soulfy displayed the Auriverde on his guitars for a while (Sepultura was the very first Brazilian band to achieve worldwide recognition, and he was quite proud of it). ESP Guitars even issued a signature guitar that sported the Auriverde. Later, he used one with the American flag... also sold as a signature guitar.

In Axis Powers Hetalia, Canada puts a sticker of his flag on his forehead to distinguish himself from America, since no one ever noticed him. (If they did, they mistaken him for America.) However, America sticks the American flag on his head saying it makes him more awesome.

Canadianman in Kinnikuman's entire costume is patterned after the Canadian flag. His special moves include the Canadian Backbreaker and swinging an axe like a lumberjack.

It should be noted that the Canadian Backbreaker is an actual wrestling hold, not something made up simply for the character.

The old (late 80s/early 90s) Alpha Flight uniforms had a maple-leaf motif on them, making them look like the flag of Canada:

Weapon Alpha/Vindicator/Guardian (and he went by the latter two names twice!) and his red-white-maple-leaved costume. His Ultimate version follows suit even though each of the Ultimate Alpha Flight members have their own peculiar costumes.

When Heather (who first took the name Vindicator after Mac's apparent death) took the name Guardian, the recently-returned Mac (who went back to Vindicator) wore a version with the red and white switched (since Heather had the original design). After he returned a second time, Heather (like the rest of the team) was wearing the standardized (and distinctively different enough) team costume, allowing Mac to return to his original look. Heather's geothermal suit from the second series was green and white.

There are also various Canadian superheroes such as Captain Canuck and the like and wear the Maple Leaf with pride to show that they're the toughest Canadian not called Wolverine there is in North America.

In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Bandit Keith wears one after the credits of the episode where he admits he's actually Canadian... in (North) America!

In the Whateley Universe, Captain Canada has an outfit and round shield that's a blatant ripoff of the 'Captain America' costume, except for the Canadian flag. It's lampshaded repeatedly. The other Canadian mutants at Whateley Academy think he's an embarrassment.

In The Superhero Squad Show, Wolverine, a Canadian, had to wear a modified version of his costume that is in Canadian colours during an episode that has him join the various national Captains like Captain America.

Canadian travellers abroad used to sew the Maple Leaf on their backpacks so as not to be confused with Americans. Nowadays this seems to be more common among American travellers pretending to be Canadian while not in America.

Fans of Tim Horton will wear Canadian flags in Buffalo, New York, due to the proximity of the Canadian border.

Shawn Ashmore once posed for a magazine wearing nothing but the Canadian flag.

The NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs proudly wear the Maple Leaf on their chests, albeit coloured blue rather than red. The team, and its insignia, predate the Maple Leaf flag by many decades.

Confederate Flag

By which we mean the Confederate Battle Flag (the one with the blue X-shape bearing white stars on it against a red background), not the stars-and-bars national flag of the Confederate States of America.

G.I. Joe H.A.V.O.C. driver Cross-Country toys, mainly sold in America, wear a confederate flag belt buckle. A later toy featured him in a Civil War Confederate jacket with the flag printed on the back, and the aforementioned belt buckle. In the first case, "Heritage, Not Hatred" is stitched under the flag to let you know he's not a complete lunatic. Both figures also sport grey Confederate kepi caps.

The Danish flag (dannebrog) is for some reason considered more to be a general symbol of joy than a national symbol, leading to it being traditionally displayed in miniature on Christmas trees, birthday cakes and party accessories, and being waved obnoxiously in the face of friends returning from overseas in the airport.

Football brings out dannebrog facepaint, shirts, flags worn as capes and the ever-present red-and-white clapping cat.

It's also flown in pretty much every garden, with actual laws regulating when and how to fly it.

Germans usually are not very fond of displaying flags and when they do it's usually regional or local flags, since the last time the country went through a craze of flags and national symbols, it ended up very badly for everyone. Except when the national football team is playing in an international competition. Then you see the three colors everywhere and on everything! It probably has been copied from football fans of other nations, like England or Brazil, who have been appearing in stadiums in their national colors for much longer. Germans see it as a way to support their team, having nothing to do with national pride.

In Axis Powers Hetalia Korea give suggestions for uses of the Japanese flag such as wearing it as a t-shirt.

Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs: The leader of the group has a headband with a red dot, like the Japanese flag. In the American version, it became a fireball, and a westerner (albeit an Englishman) ecame the supposed leader, because that's what we want to see in our American cartoons.

Hatabō from Osomatsu Kun has a miniature Japanese flag pinned to the top of his head.

Sunfire from Marvel Comics has had costumes inspired by the Japanese naval ensign (the version of the Japanese flag with the red rays extruding from the sun).

Hondo-City Judges in the Dreddverse wear white one-piece uniforms with a red circle on the chest, meant to evoke the Japanese flag.

Fuji of Stormwatch has a Japanese flag pattern painted on his face. Icons: The DC & Wildstorm art of Jim Lee shows that in the original concept for Stormwatch, the entire Multinational Team wore their flags on their faces.

Visual Kei arm bands with with a Rising Sun or Japanese Flag design are around, but I think they're actually sold more on sites that ship to America, or cater mainly to Americans, like Lolita Kisama. I made one with the rising sun and "Japan Land of The Rising Sun" written on it in Japanese.

The launch version of the Honda Fit's trunk badge had the "I" dotted with a rising sun. When Honda launched the Fit in America it was changed to a blue dot to appease American buyers who wouldn't want to fly a foreign country's colors.

Japanese Bento lunches sometimes have an Umiboshi (A salty sour pickled plum) in the center of rice. It's there for two reasons, 1) Flavor, 2) It resembles the Japanese Flag. American lunchboxes have to make do with the occasional flag-frosted cupcake, usually available only around the Fourth of July.

DC Comics once introduced a bunch of international heroes in their Annuals one year, including three new Mexican heroes. Most of the heroes had their national flag as the background of their book's cover. Since it's illegal for anyone to use the Mexican flag in anything but an official capacity, DC had to change the cover of the book when it was released in Mexico.

In Pushing Daisies, the Norwegian detectives have a SUV-based lab painted with the Norwegian flag, and always dress in jackets that make them look like they're members of the Norwegian Olympic Team. Disappointingly, the American detectives do not follow suit.

In some American colleges run by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (largely populated by Norwegians), the Norwegian flag is flown on campus next to the American flag, and the bookstore features many items (including clothing) emblazoned with the Norwegian flag.

In Norway, strings of small paper Norwegian flags are a traditional Christmas-tree decoration.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, some civilians can be seen wearing shirts with the Puerto Rican flag design on them. This started a weird rumor from fans who didn't check their facts that Captain America was an unlockable character in the game.

Professional Wrestling

Wrestlers Eddie "Primo" Colon and Savio Vega both use ring gear designed from the flag. TNA's Homicide wears a bandana designed from the flag. Some wrestlers in Puerto Rican promotions have done this too, such as El Illegal Chicano in WWC and IWA. Though sometimes he opts to wear the flag itself instead.

Juan Fiero has both a singlet and mask patterned after the Puerto Rican flag.

Shawn Hernandez wears the Puerto Rican flag on his tights, which makes sense, seeing as he is Puerto Rican. What doesn't make sense is that Hernandez has a Mexican gimmick.(TNA is the culprit in that case)

Everywhere. The Québécois are extremely nationalistic, and Quebec flags are seen on articles of clothing (and everything else) pretty much all the time, but especially around the holiday of St-Jean-Baptiste (particularly as a Take That to Canada).

Soviet Red Banner

Professional Wrestling

Nikola Volkoff, who would also ask that you stand for his singing of the Soviet national anthem...not. He hated having to do that and is glad the union fell.

Colonel Ninotonchka in GLOW, until she left the USSR and moved to France.

"Cold War" is one of the unlockable camouflage suits in Metal Gear Solid 3. It's a combat suit with the entire front end painted in a Soviet flag while the back is covered with an American flag. The joke is that since the enemy soldiers are Russian, they will hesitate to shoot you when you're facing them with their flag showing, but will be more than happy to shoot as soon as you turn around and reveal the American flag. There are also unlockable face paints of the flags of various countries, including the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union... In Soviet Russia!

Leonard Apollo in Eyeshield 21 wore an American flag tie during the NASA Aliens' game ith the Deimon Devil Bats in Japan. He's such a dick that he probably only did it to rub it into the Japanese peoples' faces, especially considering how racist he was. It's sort of hard to believe that such a huge racist could have gotten so far in America.

Jackie Gudelhian in Future GPX Cyber Formula wears the American flag-patterned trunks in EP 5 of Double-One, when he is recuperating from a crash in the race he was in.

As noted above, this is a common occurrence in Kinnikuman, but this happens most often with American characters like The Rigany or Mr. American (whose mask has the flag pattern, making this another literal example).

Captain America's outfit is unsurprisingly based on the American flag. In Earth X, Cap wears an actual flag in place of his uniform shirt (he still seems to have the old pants). He's probably not in violation of the Flag Code anyway. President Osborne has introduced a new, kinda ugly, flag.

There are dozens of other heroes with a flag motif to their costume, from Marvel's own Superpatriot, Defender, Jack Flagg, Free Spirit, Patriots I and II, the Spirit of '76, US Agent, etc, to DC's Shield, Commander and Citizen Steel (not to mention the original Steel), Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy, Agent Liberty, Major Victory, and Uncle Sam himself.

Supersolder of the Amalgam Universe wears a Stars-and-Stripes suit somewhat similar to Captain America's, but exchanges the original shield with one bearing Superman's "S" emblem.

Nuke, a drug-fueled super-tough and utterly insane Super Soldier hired by the Kingpin to take out Daredevil, had the American flag tattooed on his face. He also took pills, red ones to rile him up, blue ones to bring him down, and white ones to sedate him completely. At one point, while flying in an airplane, he violently insisted on knowing whether the beer he was about to drink was brewed... in America.

Wonder Woman pretty much walks around in a star spangled bathing suit, even though she's technically not an American (if you could tie her by birth to any real-life nation, it would be Greece). This is explained in the comics that Steve Trevor's mother crashlanded on the Amazon's island in the 1940s, died helping the inhabitants and thus was a honored hero whose American Flag patch was considered in her personal crest. Furthermore, the God Ares had Steve Trevor manipulated to try to bomb the Amazons in part because he couldn't resist the irony of their great hero's son killing them. When Diana stopped the military pilot's attempt (which he tried to break off, but was attacked by his evil copilot) and saw his US Flag patch, she decided she had to go to the USA.

In Astro City, the Old Soldier is a benevolent spirit that has taken part in virtually every armed conflict the world has ever known, but he started appearing draped partially in the American flag in 1775 and has never been seen without it since. Even when his conscience has occasionally forced him to fight against American troops. There's also the All-American, an American football themed hero whose athletic uniform has a distinctive flag motif to it.

In Judge Dredd, all American Judges have a Stars and Stripes pattern on their belt buckles. Judges in other areas have their own nationalistic variants.

Both the Superpatriot and Commander Capitalism, among others, in the larger Image Comics universe. Commander Capitalism probably deserves special mention: his entire costume is patterned exactly after the US flag. A field of 50 stars in the upper left and 13 stripes - anything else would just be unamerican.

The cover to the first issue of Supreme Power shows the baby Hyperion wrapped in the American flag. It's much more sinister than it sounds.

"Wee" Hughie: Brits just get a wee bit suspicious when folks start wavin' flags, you know?Mother's Milk: Don't blame 'em. Mattera fact, you might say the more you wave it, the less it means. Less you think about what it means. Start wrappin' shit up in it, wear it like some kinda goddamn suit...? Hell. Pretty soon, it don't mean nothin' at all.

In The DCU, Miss Liberty was a Revoloutionary War heroine who wore a costume modelled after the Star and Stripes, making her (in-universe) the earliest flag based costume adventurer.

Subverted on Top Gear, where the British presenters are offered an American flag themed motorcycle to drive should their own bikes break down. In Vietnam. Naturally, none of them wants it. Of course, being dumpy white men who only speak English, most of the natives probably assumed they were Americans anyway.

Aasif Mandvi: Well, A, it's just so 12th Century, and B, I don't like having to walk around wearing this suit. (Aasif turns around and shows a huge American flag appliqued to the back of his sports jacket.) Jon Stewart: Wow. You had to have a special suit made? Aasif Mandvi: No, it's a Tommy Hilfiger, but I had to buy it!

Lex Luger and Kurt Angle have worn outfits based on the American flag. Justified with Angle. His pro wrestling look was based on his singlet from the 1996 Olympics, where he won a gold medal in wrestling for the United States.

Ulysses, a mysterious character from Fallout: New Vegas wears a duster with the Fallout setting's version of the Old World Flag on the back. By the end of Lonesome Road, the Courier is given a coat of their own with the symbol of the faction that they choose to support for the official endgame, with the Old World coat representing Mr. House.

In City of Heroes, Statesman apparently used to wear a US flag as his cape, but removed it to replace the American flag atop Paragon City Hall, and in respect to Hero 1. This is used as the in-game justification for why characters cannot wear a cape until they reach level 20 and do a specific mission to earn one.

Guile from the Street Fighter franchise has a tattoo of the American flag on both of his arms.

The appropriately-named Patriot from Quake III: Arena wears a flag on his head literally. The fluff says he has an overly patriotic appearance basically to make fun of the time of humans still fighting each other.

Izzy Sparks from Guitar Hero has some outfits with the American flag on them.

When you're as American as Stephen Colbert, an American flag is the only◊ clothing you need.

Abbie Hoffman wore American flag print shirts, something that got him beat up by policeman because "people died for that flag." When Abbie wore the shirt for an interview on The Merv Griffin Show in 1970, Moral Guardians visually blurred out his image for the broadcast.

Allen Ginsberg wore an Uncle Sam-style top hat as an outrageous protest back when it was considered disrespectful to wear the flag, thanks to Values Dissonance.

And of course, American soldiers wear a patch shoulder depecting an American Flag. When worn on the right shoulder, the flag has to be "reversed" so that it looks like the flag is waving in the correct way when the soldier walks forward.

Old Navy stores in the US sell US flag t-shirts for five dollars each from March to July 4 every year. Generally the shirts feature an image of the flag with an Old Navy logo and the current year.

In international racing events, you will often see cars painted with American flag designs covering a goodly portion of the body, such as on the American run Ferraris in the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, though, in that event, the french went with french flag colored Porshe 911s covering the whole car body, instead of just the sides.

Sports trunks with a stars and bars motif are common in combat sports, particularly older Mixed Martial Arts fighters such as Don Fry and Butterbean.

The USA Olympic fencing team have taken it one step further by wearing a flag pattern on their faces.

Tea Party Protesters

Texas Flag

Music

Willie Nelson has been quite fond of this. If he's not wearing a Texas bandanna, expect to see a Texas flag in the background while he's performing.

In Red Alert 2, you see a highway sign emblazoned with the Texas Flag reminding drivers to "Drive Friendly, The Texas Way!" shortly before a Soviet tank runs it over. The sign, of course, is a real highway sign displayed at state border crossings.

Texas State Guard members wear Texas flags on their uniforms, which are otherwise identical to active military and National Guard uniforms. In the civilian world, this is sometimes misconstrued into a belief that soldiers from Texas wear the Texan flag patches instead of American flags.

Big Tex, the iconic (and huge) statue from the Texas State Fair, wears a button-up shirt patterned like the Texas Flag.

Many products in Texas have a Texas flag somewhere on them, although generally as a part of the design and not as THE design.

This troper has seen a barn in Texas with a hug flag painted across the entire roof.

Really, you can find the Texas Flag all over the place if you look hard enough, although most Texans likely filter most of it out because it's always been that way, and thus, by its very nature, is not worth noticing. The filter lifts upon crossing state lines, so the humor can once again be appreciated when one encounters a sequined Texas flag handbag in a department store in Colorado!

Captain Britain. Sure his outfit hasn't always been a perfect Union Jack design, but it's meant to invoke the image. In the new Captain Britain and MI:13 series, after dying, the good Captain is resurrected by Merlin - who pulls his body together out of British flags, in order that he be one symbol representing many, like the flag itself. His sister, Psylocke, also wears similar outfit during her brief time as Captain Britain.

Union Jack, as the name suggests, even more so. Union Jack was in The Invaders, with Captain America.

Brit-Cit Judges in Judge Dredd wear a uniform which is mostly the same as those of the Mega-Cities, except the Stars and Stripes belt buckle is replaced by one with a Union Jack. (And the shoulder eagle becomes a lion.)

The Elseworlds tale Superman: True Brit told the story of Superman had he landed in the UK rather than America. Colin Clark dons a costume featuring the Union Jack on the chest - and his signature S symbol in the center. At the end of the story he emigrates to America and adopts the suit we're all familiar with.

The British comic Warlord featured a character known as 'Union Jack' Jackson, a Royal Marine attached to the USMC during the Pacific campaign of World War II. Although he usually wore the same uniform as the Americans, he had a Union flag painted on the front of his helmet (many of the Yanks had the Stars and Stripes emblazoned on theirs, for some reason).

Rose's Union Flag T-shirt in Doctor Who episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances,". Rose ends up hanging from a barrage balloon in the middle of a German air raid and notes that it perhaps wasn't such a good idea.

Joey in Friends buys a Union Flag top hat from a souvenir stand in London. The seller tells him that all real Brits wear them. When Chandler asks why he doesn't see anybody else with one on, the man tells him that they're all tourists. Joey seems to accept this.

Mason from Dead Like Me has boxer shorts with the Union Jack on the backside.

Tim Brooke-Taylor of The Goodies often wore the flag◊ not only as a waistcoat but flag boxers too.

CeCe Jones of Shake It Up (an American from Chicago) is fond of wearing the Union Jack on everything from jackets to karate uniforms.

Apparently, Disney Channel likes this trope. Throughout the run of Lizzie McGuire, Miranda very frequently has the British flag on some piece of apparel she's wearing.

The Union Jack became somewhat of a symbol of the band Def Leppard thanks to some iconic clothing worn in their early music videos back when MTV actually showed videos. Funny how at that time the band wasn't very popular in their home country of Britain, but they topped the charts...in America.

In The Goon Show (China Story), Neddie Seagoon comments: "As I walked the streets, people seemed to know I was British. Was it my bearing? The cut of my denture? Or was it the six-foot floodlit Union Jack wrapped round my head?"

Doug Swallow was said to wear a shirt with this design in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, a game that's available in America. Phoenix testified that he was wearing the shirt, but when Doug was killed he was wearing a jacket that covered the shirt. It became a bit of a problem for the case.

Steve Fox from the Tekken games, as an Englishman, has one costume featuring Union Flag trunks.

In SSX 3, Brit Moby Jones' default costume has him wearing a shirt with a dicolored Union Jack on it... and one of his helmets displays the Jolly Roger. But no American flags. One of his later costume options has him shirtless, revealing a giant Union Flag pattern tattooed on his entire upper body. That's one patriotic guy. And a tough one, too; it takes a real man to brave the tundra of Alaska, which is in America, without a shirt on just to show your national pride.

Billy Kane wore overalls with a Union Jack on them in the original Fatal Fury (and KoF'95), and a sleeveless Union Jack shirt in Fatal Fury 2/Special.

On Phineas and Ferb, British-American Ferb has the Union Jack on one of his shirts (seen in "The Baljeatles"), as well as his skateboard ("Picture This"). He also gets one in the background of his Rousing Speech in "The Lizard Whisperer" when a truck with the image coincidentally stops behind him.

Old Mini Coopers with white roofs were and are still fit with aftermarket Union Flag decals on top, making the car practically wear a flag on its head. The new Mini can be ordered with a factory-fit Union Flag.

In A Bit of Fry and Laurie's "Treaty of Westphalia" sketch, the characters representing England, Sweden, and France all wear badges depicting their flags. Hugh Laurie's France wears the Tricolore in a bit of Anachronism Stew.

In Arthur, King of Time and Space, British characters in the space arc wear badges of their flag if they're a king, or their leige's flag otherwise (usually Arthur, but there are exceptions; Mark's retainers all wear the standard of the Duke of Cornwall, as do Guenevere and Lancelot when they're exiled from court and taken in by Tristram and Isolde.) The Pendragon flag is green and red quarters, a simplification of one of the traditonal arms of Arthur, which quarters the Virgin Mary on a green field with three crowns on a red field. In the baseline arc, Arthur is also shown wearing a tabard in these colours when he was a squire.

National cycling champions usually wear their flag on their shirt during competitions, except for world championships and olympics. Their flag jerseys are customized to match the team's sponsors, and sometimes their colors too.

Legend has it that the Austrian red-white-red flag was invented after Duke Leopold V of Austria came home from a particularly bloody battle, his previously white shirt now all red except for where his belt had been. He immediately declared his outfit's new colour scheme to be the new flag.

South American presidents love their presidential sashes, which are generally decorated with color schemes similar to those of their national flag. Many of the pictures on That Other Wiki depict the presidents wearing these sashes along with dress uniforms or other formal attire.

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